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Numerical Investigation of the Deteriorated Heat Transfer Phenomenon for Supercritical Water Flows in Vertical Circular Tubes

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Complementary Resources for Tomorrow (EAS 2019)

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Abstract

The present paper is aimed at the in-depth thermal-hydraulic analysis of supercritical water flow at various operating conditions in vertical circular tubes. Computational fluid dramatics model using two turbulence models, Reynolds Stress Model and \( {\text{k}}\,{-}\,\upomega \) SST model, have been used for the analysis in this paper. Three experimental cases, which are operated at various working regimes, are chosen for the detailed analysis of deteriorated heat transfer and normal heat transfer cases. The studies are carried out for the turbulent properties and velocity profiles and their effects on the heat transfer in the vertical circular tubes. It is found that the sharp increase in the wall temperature vanishes if the gravity is neglected. Hence, it can be concluded that buoyancy plays a dominant role in deteriorating the heat transfer for the cases of a low mass flux condition. Besides, the turbulence is found to be suppressed severely for the deteriorated heat transfer and is one of the reasons for the deterioration in heat transfer. Both turbulent models predicted the suppression phenomenon. However, compared with the previous direct numerical simulation studies, which showed two peaks in the turbulent kinetic energy profile, the \( {\text{k}}\,{-}\,\upomega \) SST model fails to predict the proper turbulent kinetic energy profile in the near wall region, which showed only one peak or no peak for the turbulent kinetic energy in the whole flow region.

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Abbreviations

C p :

Specific heat, \( {\text{J}}/{\text{kg}} \cdot {\text{K}} \)

D :

Diameter of a tube, m

g :

Gravitational acceleration, m/s2

G :

Mass flux, kg/m2 s

k :

Turbulence kinetic energy, m2/s2

L :

Length, m

L h :

Heated length, m

p :

Pressure, Pa

q :

Heat flux, W/m2

r :

Distance from centre of the tube, m

r ∗ :

Non-dimensional radial location, \( r^{ * } = \frac{r}{D/2} \)

T :

Temperature, oC

u :

Velocity, m/s

V :

Axial velocity, m/s

V 0 :

Axial velocity at the centre of a cross-section of the tube, m/s

y :

Distance from the wall, m

y + :

Non-dimensional distance from the wall, \( y^{ + } = \frac{{u_{\tau } y}}{v} \)

z :

Axial location, m

z ∗ :

Non-dimensional axial location, \( z^{ * } = \frac{z}{L} \)

ε :

Turbulence kinetic energy dissipation, m2/s3

µ :

Dynamic viscosity, \( {\text{Pa}} \cdot {\text{s}} \)

ν:

Kinematic viscosity, m2/s

ρ :

Density of a fluid, kg/m3

ω :

Specific dissipation rate, 1/s

φ :

Dissipation function

dht:

Deteriorated heat transfer

in:

Inlet

m:

Mean

pc:

Pseudo-critical

t:

Turbulent

w:

Wall

BWR:

Boiling Water Reactor

CFD:

Computational Fluid Dynamics

DHT:

Deteriorated Heat Transfer

DHTZ:

Deteriorated Heat Transfer Zone

GIF:

Generation IV International Forum

NHT:

Normal Heat Transfer

PCR:

Pseudo Critical Region

PWR:

Pressurized Water Reactor

RSM:

Reynold Stress Model

SCWR:

Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactor

SST:

Shear Stress Transport

TKE:

Turbulence Kinetic Energy

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Western University, 1151 Richmond Street, London, ON, N6A5B9, Canada

    Rohit Maitri, Huirui Han & Chao Zhang

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Western University, 1151 Richmond Street, London, ON, N6A5B9, Canada

    Jin Jiang

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  1. Rohit Maitri
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chao Zhang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, TN, USA

    Ahmad Vasel-Be-Hagh

  2. Turbulence and Energy Lab, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada

    David S-K. Ting

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Maitri, R., Han, H., Zhang, C., Jiang, J. (2020). Numerical Investigation of the Deteriorated Heat Transfer Phenomenon for Supercritical Water Flows in Vertical Circular Tubes. In: Vasel-Be-Hagh, A., Ting, DK. (eds) Complementary Resources for Tomorrow. EAS 2019. Springer Proceedings in Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38804-1_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38804-1_15

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